Doctoral Dissertation Research: Water Resources Development and National Identity Building in Northwestern China

民族认同与日常生活的关系，与戏剧性事件的关系一样大。在中国，民族认同的表达往往与民众情绪的激烈爆发联系在一起，而这种情绪往往是针对其他国家的。本研究将通过考察宁夏回族自治区最近完成的一个水利开发项目，探讨水利开发在创造日常民族认同感中的作用。水资源开发是考察与日常实践相关的国家建设的合适场所，这既是因为发展在当代中国的国家认同中发挥着重要作用，也是因为水资源长期以来与中国的国家权力有关。本研究将探讨的问题是：中国政府是否利用水资源开发来促进中国西部地区的国家认同建设？这个问题将通过提出两组子问题来回答：1）国家实体如何根据中国民族认同来构建宁夏水利开发项目的建设？2）汉族和回族的混合项目参与者如何解释这些叙述？发展是否在日常实践中再现民族特性？第一个问题将通过对面向公众的国家规划文件和出版物的话语分析以及对国家规划者的关键线人访谈来回答。第二组问题将通过八个月的参与者观察和访谈来回答。与会者的观察将审查水管理的日常做法如何成为或不成为国家特性的象征。 有目的地抽样采访90个人在三个社区，每个不同的民族组成，但都受到相同的饮用水和灌溉项目，将阐明如何发展项目的计划受益人解释国家的叙述。这项研究将审查水资源开发在塑造民族认同方面的作用。它将通过考虑经济发展在这种身份中的作用，有助于研究国家身份如何在日常生活中形成。这一贡献将在中国农村的背景下，以前的研究没有比较汉族和少数民族群体的国家认同。这项研究还拓宽了最近对中国水政治的研究，超越了对政府机构之间关系的研究，考虑了水在塑造个人日常生活中的作用。该项目有可能影响对中国民族认同发展的理解，以及对水资源的管理，这是一种至关重要的全球资源。该项目还将为博士生的教育做出贡献，并促进美国和中国之间的长期学术联系。

National identity has as much to do with daily practices as it does with dramatic events. Expressions of national identity in China are often associated with passionate outbreaks of popular sentiment, most often directed against other countries. This study will consider the role of water development in creating everyday national identity by examining a recently completed water development project in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Water resources development is an appropriate venue to examine the nation-building associated with daily practices, both because development plays a major role in contemporary national identity in China, and because water resources have long been associated with state power in China. This study will address the question: Does the Chinese state use water resource development to promote national identity building in western China? This question will be answered by asking two sets of sub-questions: 1) How do state entities frame the construction of water development projects in Ningxia with respect to Chinese national identity? and 2) How are such narratives interpreted by commingled ethnic Han and Hui project participants? Does development reproduce national identity in everyday practices? The first of these will be answered through a discourse analysis of state planning documents and publications intended for the general public, as well as through key-informant interviews with state planners. The second set of questions will be answered through eight months of participant observation and interviews. Participant observation will examine how daily practices of water management do or do not come to symbolize national identity. Purposefully sampled interviews with 90 individuals in three communities, each differing ethnic composition, but all affected by the same drinking water and irrigation project, will illuminate how the planned beneficiaries of a development project interpret state narratives. This study will examine the role of water resources development in shaping national identity. It will contribute to the study of how national identities are formed on a daily basis by considering the role of economic development in such identities. This contribution will be made in the context of rural China, where previous studies have not compared national identity among Han and ethnic minority groups. This research also broadens recent research on the politics of water in China by moving beyond examining the relationships between government agencies to consider the role of water in shaping the everyday lives of individuals. This project has the potential to impact understanding of development in Chinese national identity, as well as the management of water, a crucial global resource. This project will also contribute to the education of a doctoral student, and fostering long-term academic connections between the United States and China.